General Fusion – Gigaomhttp://gigaom.com
The industry leader in emerging technology researchThu, 08 Dec 2016 20:14:32 +0000en-UShourly1Five out-there energy projects that are moving closer to realityhttp://gigaom.com/2014/05/05/five-out-there-energy-projects-that-are-moving-closer-to-reality/
http://gigaom.com/2014/05/05/five-out-there-energy-projects-that-are-moving-closer-to-reality/#commentsMon, 05 May 2014 20:04:23 +0000http://gigaom.com/?p=839581Some newer clean energy sources, like solar panels and wind turbines, are becoming mainstream industries, with low prices and established financing models. But even in this era of emerging predictable clean energy, there are some pretty weird, experimental and ambitious energy projects under development. And they’re (sometimes surprisingly) trying to move out of the lab and off of research papers, and into actual production.

Many of these projects won’t make it to market on time and on budget, but kudos to the crazy energy entrepreneurs who are trying new things. Here are five weird and wacky energy projects that are trying to become reality:

1. Space-based solar: For decades, Japanese scientists have explored the idea of building a huge solar collector in space that can beam microwave energy down to Earth and produce “space-based solar” electricity. But the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is starting to take the idea more seriously in the wake of the country’s decision to move off nuclear power. The IEEE Spectrum reports that JAXA has now developed a technology road map, with planned demonstration projects and milestones, and a goal of building a 1 GW (the size of a large coal or nuclear plant) commercial system in the 2030’s. While that might seem far off, it leaves just a little over a decade or two to figure out all the logistics that such a far-out space-based system would need.

2). A hot air power station: Over the years, a few researchers have been looking into using the equivalent of manufactured dust devils to create power. The idea is that the sun can heat a thin layer of air that can whip up into a wind vortice, and can then potentially be tapped for energy. But now a company called Solar Wind Energy Tower (s SWET) is trying to take the idea of a solar-induced column of air to a commercial level. Bloomberg reports that Solar Wind Energy Tower has gotten approval from the city of Yuma, Arizona to build a $1.5 billion, 2,250-foot-tall tower that could generate 435 megawatt-hours a year of the solar-induced air column. Of course, city approval is only the first step — the company still needs a utility to commit to buy the energy and investors to finance the tower, and then needs to build it.

3). Clean coal power plant: Capturing carbon emissions from coal plants might not be a “crazy” idea, but the technology has long been so expensive that it’s been far from commercialization. However, two carbon capture plants in North America — one in Saskatchewan and one in Mississippi — are close to actually being completed, reports MIT Tech Review. The Mississippi plant is five times bigger than the Saskatchewan one, and it’s also using more controversial technology (it gasifies the coal). Still, it’s an important breakthrough. China also has GreenGen, a massive carbon capture and storage coal plant in Tianjin, which will soon start storing its carbon emissions underground miles from the plant.

A metallic case called a hohlraum holds the fuel capsule for NIF experiments.

4). Nuclear fusion: Scientists have spent 60 years pouring money into trying to crack open nuclear fusion tech. But earlier this year, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers announced that they had reached an important milestone: the fuel used to create fusion in their reactor was capable of producing more energy than required to initiate fusion. They published their work in Nature. Startup General Fusion says its own nuclear fusion tech is on THE verge of a breakthrough, and is about two to three years from being used in a power plant. That idea is backed by venture capitalists, showing THAT some VCs are still willing to fund big energy ideas.

5). Air batteries: This one’s not in energy generation, but storage. Batteries that use air and metal have been under development for years. A metal air battery uses a metal — like lithium or zinc — for the anode, air (drawn in from the environment) as the cathode, and usually a liquid electrolyte. Using air can make these batteries ultra lightweight and inexpensive (since air, of course, is free). The Department of Energy’s ARPA-E program has a whole bunch of projects working on batteries that use air as a key component (for electric cars and grid storage), including bigger companies like Fluidic Energy, which I wrote about last year, and PolyPlus, which I covered a couple years ago.

General Fusion is toiling away at developing fusion power, the powerful and waste-free Holy Grail of nuclear power. More specifically, General Fusion is looking to create its own brand of magnetized target fusion, which employs hundreds of mechanical pistons to drive a shock wave through a lead-lithium mixture surrounding a plasma of hydrogen isotopes, fusing them into hydrogen. While the process is technically feasible, it’s mighty difficult to accomplish and General Fusion hopes to demonstrate a working model in 2013.

Other investors in General Fusion’s round included Canadian oil company Cenovus Energy and existing investors Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital, GrowthWorks, Braemar Energy Ventures, Entrepreneurs Fund, Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), and SET Venture Partners.

Very few venture capital firms are willing to back nuclear startups because of the high risk and high capital investment needed to commercialize the technology. Some exceptions include CMEA Capital, which has backed NuScale Power, and Venrock, which has invested in Tri-Alpha Energy. Hyperion Power found an investor in private equity group Altira Group. General Fusion stands out because of its high-profile venture investor list.

However, nuclear innovation could be stalled for the near future. As I wrote in March, the Japanese nuclear disaster could stall the commercial deployment of nuclear plants in the short term, as well as research and investment in nuclear innovation in the long term.
Image courtesy of Jurvetson.

]]>http://gigaom.com/2011/05/04/amazons-jeff-bezos-backs-nuclear-startup-general-fusion/feed/9Daily Sprouthttp://gigaom.com/2009/07/31/daily-sprout-158/
http://gigaom.com/2009/07/31/daily-sprout-158/#commentsFri, 31 Jul 2009 20:49:53 +0000http://earth2tech.com/?p=38254“Carousel Fraud” Strikes Carbon Markets: Carbon credit fraudsters are increasingly “setting up complicated import and export schemes between EU member countries, charging buyers for value-added tax in the country of destination, and then absconding with the tax rather than handing it over to the governments.” — FT Energy Source

Low-Budget Fusion Power: “General Fusion, a startup in Vancouver, Canada, says it can build a prototype fusion power plant within the next decade and do it for less than a billion dollars. So far, it has raised $13.5 million.” — MIT’s Technology Review

Colorado Utility Considers Extra Fees for Solar Users: Colorado utility Xcel Energy has is toying with the idea of charging a fee to all customers who install solar systems after April 2010, supposedly in order to pay for transmission lines. — Denver Post via Fast Company

Carbon Capture Needs a Decade on the Dole: Carbon capture and storage technology will require government subsidies for at least a decade before it becomes economically viable, according to a researcher at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. — Bloomberg

Military Power: Army bases like Ft. Irwin in California, poised to snatch away from Nellis Air Force Base the title of the Pentagon’s biggest solar array, offer two big advantages to clean-energy developers: Lots of secure land and stable demand for electricity. — WSJ’s Environmental Capital

]]>http://gigaom.com/2009/07/31/daily-sprout-158/feed/1Helion Energy Seeks $20M For Fusion Enginehttp://gigaom.com/2009/04/24/helion-energy-seeks-20m-for-fusion-engine/
http://gigaom.com/2009/04/24/helion-energy-seeks-20m-for-fusion-engine/#commentsFri, 24 Apr 2009 14:22:08 +0000http://earth2tech.com/?p=29685Helion Energy, a startup developing engines powered by nuclear fusion, is certain to pique the interest of sci-fi fans. But the more important question for Helion President Philip Wallace is whether the same can be said of venture capitalists. That’s because the Seattle-based company is on the hunt for $20 million in financing to build a full-scale model of its fusion engine.

That engine, which the company currently has a prototype of at one-third scale, works by forming hot, ionized hydrogen gas. The gas is then electromagnetically accelerated to greater than 1 million mph and collided in a burn chamber to generate enormous amounts of heat energy.

The company’s plan is to sell its technology to new and existing power generation sites. Helion’s engines, once commercially ready, could be used to produce heat in power plants that currently rely on burning coal or natural gas, Wallace said. The heat runs steam turbines that drive generators to produce electricity. “We are very confident that we can out perform all carbon-based energy sources. If we can implement the technology, the economics follow,” he said.

But any venture capitalist that invests with Helion better have patience. Wallace said the full-scale prototype should be ready by 2011 or 2012 and a commercial engine available within a “decade.” Meanwhile, other companies are pushing to develop technology based on nuclear fusion. They include Burnaby, British Columbia-based General Fusion and the super-stealthy Tri-Alpha Energy, which reportedly raised $40 million in venture funding in 2007. Still, Helion’s Wallace believes his company can commercialize more quickly and cheaply than its competitors.

Nuclear fusion is often confused with its more politicized cousin, nuclear fission, but the two are distinct. In fusion, two light atomic nuclei are fused together to form a heavier nucleus and in the process release a large amount of heat energy. Unlike with fission, which produces radioactive waste, the by-product of fusion is environmentally safe. Wallace said that’s one reason why generating electricity from fusion will be cheaper than current nuclear power, which is based on fission—companies using it wouldn’t have the safety and regulatory hurdles to overcome.

As exciting as Helion’s technology is, it’s going to take a lot of money before its fusion engines start replacing coal. The company predicts it will need $100 million on top of the $20 million it currently seeks to go from full-scale prototype to commercial production.